Look at these examples to see how defining relative clauses are used.
Are you the one who sent me the email?
The phone which has the most features is also the most expensive.
This is the video that I wanted to show you.
The person they spoke to was really helpful.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Relative clauses give us information about the person or thing mentioned.
Defining relative clauses give us essential information – information that tells us who or what we are talking about.
The woman who lives next door works in a bank.
These are the flights that have been cancelled.
We usually use a relative pronoun or adverb to start a defining relative clause: who, which, that, when, where or whose.
who/that
We can use who or that to talk about people. that is more common and a bit more informal.
She's the woman who cuts my hair.
He's the man that I met at the conference.
which/that
We can use which or that to talk about things. that is more common and a bit more informal.
There was a one-year guarantee which came with the TV.
The laptop that I bought last week has started making a strange noise!
Other pronouns
when can refer to a time.
Summer is the season when I'm happiest.
where can refer to a place.
That's the stadium where Real Madrid play.
whose refers to the person that something belongs to.
He's a musician whose albums have sold millions.
Omitting the relative pronoun
Sometimes we can leave out the relative pronoun. For example, we can usually leave out who, which or that if it is followed by a subject.
The assistant [that] we met was really kind.
(we = subject, can omit that)
We can't usually leave it out if it is followed by a verb.
The assistant that helped us was really kind.
(helped = verb, can't omit that)
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
Hello Navreet
Welcome!
'whom' is the object form of 'who', so when the relative pronoun 'who' is the object (for example, of a verb or preposition), you can use 'whom' instead of 'who'. Especially when it is the object of a verb, very often people say 'who' instead of 'whom', which sounds formal in most situations nowadays.
You can read about all of this in more detail on our Relative pronouns and relative clauses page.
Best wishes
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Asta
In both cases, you could use a preposition + 'which' in place of 'where' or 'when':
You can see an explanation and more examples of this in the Relative pronouns with prepositions on our Relative pronouns and relative clauses page.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello keka,
In that sentence, which took... is a non-defining relative clause. It does not identify the subject but rather provides extra information about it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello algnzl
In this case, 'that' is best described as a conjunction.
There are quite a few nouns (such as 'belief') that can be followed by a 'that' clause to express opinions and feelings.
You can read a little more about this in the Postmodifiers section of our Noun phrases page as well as this dictionary page.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team